Anyone Can Play Guitar

Dir: Jon Spira

2011

****

Anyone Can Play Guitar is a fascinating little music documentary by Jon Spira (Elstree 1976) about the Oxford Indie scene of the late 80s to late 90s. Not my town but definitely my music, I remember the buzz well but never quite made it to Oxford's infamous venues. It is amazing to see how far one seed can grow, all thanks to the influence of bands like Talulah Gosh, venues such as the Jericho and the success of groups like Radiohead. Spira recorded over 300 hours of interviews with pretty much everyone who was there and involved. I can't imagine what it would be like to try and edit that down to just 90 minutes but the end result is just great. There are several stories going on through the run time, it is a history lesson but also a very personal journey for many of the people involved and the interviewees really do open up. The local label created by the combination of venues, managers and fanzine are heralded as music heroes by many and scorned upon by some for their hold on things and lack of direction. It's a beautifully balanced piece. The rise of bands such as Supergrass, Ride and Radiohead is covered as you'd expect but we also see what happened to much hyped bands such as Swervedriver, Dustball, Five Thirty and the unluckiest band in the world, The Candy Skins. The trials and tribulations of The Candy Skins could have been covered in their own film, a great band who suffered greatly thanks to nothing more than bad timing, again and again. Spira passion for these bands, the movement and his local history is clear and the film is easy to be enveloped by, indeed I bought five albums from these bands the moment the film ended, I just wish I'd heard of them back in the day but thanks to great documentary makers like Spira I haven't quite missed out.